IIPM Admission

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Orientation Day at IIPM is a new beginning for aspiring achievers, upcoming leaders and tomorrow’s CEOs. IIPM Lucknow conducted the auspicious ceremony on 21st August 2010 for its Fall Winter UG and PG batches.

The event started with lighting the lamp of knowledge followed by welcome speech. In the welcome speech; Dean- IIPM, Lucknow, Prof. Amlan Ray briefed the students about the exciting campus life ahead and requirements in academics.

It was a very special day for every IIPM member as many young minds were joining the family. The new students were introduced to the institute by Prof. Rajat Shukal, Dean- Placements All India Strategic Management Group. Besides, there were intellectual insights on education and the benefits of joining IIPM from other senior faculty members Mr Ashok Dhall and Mrs Shilpi Saxena.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

With Wood’s endorsers disappearing fast, its time to question companies’ move to drop celebs in controversy

It may not be relevant for many, but there is a striking similarity between Tiger Woods and former Vice-captain of the Indian cricket team, Ajay Jadeja; getting dumped by endorsers. While Tiger has lost five of his big endorsers – Accenture, Gatorade, AT&T, Gillette and Tag Heuer – in less than a month, the biggest question remains: do celebrities under controversy really tarnish a brand’s image?

“The brands who have signed Tiger had done it purely on his professional credentials and he will not stop playing bad golf for any reasons. Thus, the companies who have dumped him should reanalyse it [the move],” answers Vaybhav Singh, CD, Dhar & Hoon. But similar was the case with Salman Khan, through his various controversies. Advertisers in India have preferred ‘clean’ images (like Bachchan, SRK, Sachin, Dhoni) than those not in-the-white-list. That celebrity branding pays like crazy is a no-brainer. Robert Clark from HEC Montreal and Ignatius Hortsmann from University of Toronto wrote the classic industry standard ‘Celebrity Endorsements’ proving that celebrities not only enhance product recall, they also enhance consumer perception of product value! But Jack Trout, the originator of ‘positioning’, has provided his take in the past, “There’s always the danger that your celebrity, being human, will do something that will embarrass your branding program. You can fire them, but damage can still be done.”

Today, celebrity endorsements have gone up to a never before seen level. Yet, while companies like Coca Cola (which has topped the latest Interbrand-BusinessWeek ‘Most Valuable Global Brands 2009’ list) invest millions in maintaining celebrities, as written in this magazine in the previous issue, seven out of the top ten ‘most valuable brands’ (like IBM, Microsoft, Google, Intel) have no celebrity brand ambassador. That said, the fact is that when a celebrity does delve into the realms of infamousness, the brands he or she endorses would be advantaged of at least one characteristic. Instant brand recall! The biggest brand that Tiger Woods indirectly used to endorse was the sports of golf. Till Woods arrived, golf had only a niche following. Now, it’s suddenly one of the most recalled sports. Think about it. Even if you’ve never watched a golf tournament all your life, the next time that Tiger Woods appears in the PGA tourney, would you or would you not spare your few precious clinker minutes to ogle at his ‘drive’ :-) There’s our point!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

It’s a timeless beauty: After coming out with an aggressive media campaign, Volkswagen perfectly complimented it with the launch of the much-awaited Beetle in the country. Popularly known as the ‘Bug’, Beetle is expected to chart a new success story for Volkswagen in India. In fact, Beetle is the first Volkswagen car that people remember for its unique shape and reliability. Priced at Rs.20.45 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), the New Beetle is equipped with a 2-litre, 4-cylinder petrol engine and is paired with a six-speed automatic transmission. The pricing may seem a little hefty but it is more directed towards creating a temptation for Volkswagen brand in India. Moreover, it has already become ‘Das Auto’ of 2009 in no time in the country.

About IIPM

IIPM is India’s Premier B-School. It was established by economic visionary Dr. M. K Chaudhuri in the year 1973. IIPM ranks among the top 5 B-Schools of India. Prof Arindam Chaudhuri is the Dean of IIPM. He is an eminent author, an authoritative speaker & a transformational leader. He has been conferred upon with ‘Management Guru 2000’ award, ‘Personality of the Decade’ award, ‘Example to Youth’ award & many more...
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri established Planman Consulting in 1996. Now Planman Consulting is India's largest multi interest consulting and business services corporation engaging a variety of organizations, institutions and enterprises in diverse industry and government verticals.
Planman’s Consulting services are utilized by a number of the Fortune 500 organizations. There are various sister concerns of Planman Consulting, namely:
Planman Media (A publishing house), Planman HR (A human resource consultancy), Planman Financials (A financial company), ICMR (Market Research Company), Planman Marcom (Advertising and PR Company), Planman Motion Pictures (Film production house), Planman Technologies (An IT firm), Planman Stars (An Event Management Company)